Wearing The Power of Neutrals

Sitting in a London café waiting for my train I am surrounded by a sea of neutrals.  It’s not exclusive to this station, or indeed any station; I’ve seen plenty of it as I travel through the capital.  Commuters and travellers in their thousands wearing blacks, greys, whites, browns and beiges with the odd spattering of accent colour; a red hat, a pink bag, a purple coat. 

While I do believe that most of our great race are not confident enough in their knowledge of colour to risk experimenting with it “I would never have put these colours together, but I bought it from the website as suggested and it feels really good” - Kelly, Chrysalis Consulting is evidence that we can be moved safely into areas beyond our previous comfort zone.  It’s clear that neutrals have a place in the working environment, a cacophony might be too much of an affront or a distraction, so you learn how to push the boundaries appropriately and confidently.

A quick foray onto Wikipedia and I discover that the purpose of neutral in electricity is grounding. 

 

A fascinating article is provided by Wholistic Tennis on returning to neutral in a game of tennis and fully understanding the power of neutral whilst pinpointing a key challenge:

 

….In terms of tactical play we talk about offense, defense and neutral…………..

Neutral is the least glamorous, and for most people, the least enjoyable of the three possible conditions

 

…There is a great deal to learn in neutral.

 

The concept of neutral never changes although the neutral ball a player hits will change dramatically as he or she develops

 

Keep playing at your neutral and as you become bigger, stronger, quicker and as your strokes become more grooved and effortless your neutral will often automatically become bigger and bigger

 

It is impossible to win on offense alone….  One has to earn the right to play offense and playing solid neutral will offer you the opportunity to ultimately play offense.

 

Finally and very importantly, the patience required to stay in neutral is excellent mental training for the competitive player…………… 

 

And so, replacing the context of playing tennis with dressing for authority, i.e. being taken seriously, it is important to understand the power of neutrals as a foundation for your wardrobe, you then earn the right to use colour creatively and with confidence.

 

Ground your big or core investment pieces (suit, skirt, trousers, jacket) in a darker neutral and ring the changes of variety through fashion and your seasonal colours and styles of your tops and accessories.  Providing your weight doesn’t change drastically, a good investment garment will still be looking good and serving you well for years to come.

 

How interesting to hear fashion editor Anna Wintour’s response to the question ‘Is there anything you would refuse to wear?’ is simply ‘head-to-toe black’. 

 

 

 

So there you have it - identify the neutrals and how they work for you so that you can confidently apply colour or texture to achieve interest at your desired level of impact.  As with any successful recipe, it’s the balance of ingredients which makes the magic work; colour to neutrals is like cake to icing.  ‘Everything in moderation’ could be a wise approach.

 
Ground the core of your capsule wardrobe around your best neutrals, keep returning to them as the basis from which you launch yourself into offensive (high visibility) or defensive (low visibility) and you’ll grow from strength to strength!

Patterns -v- Plains

A friend and long term client of House of Colour sent me through this link earlier in the summer with the comment ‘I’m speechless!’   

From the raft of comments that bounced around social media it clearly hasn’t rendered everyone speechless!  The majority of comments, humorous though many were, merely shared the opinion that they didn’t like the outfits.  However, opinions abound in the 21^st Century, it doesn’t take much of an invitation for them to fly generously and freely in the absence of action.  And with the Games now behind us (didn’t they do well!) the reality of the action, predictably far outweighed any commentary on the outfits.

So, with the caveat that the quality of the photograph may well be distorting the colour I’m going to lend my opinion. This is unusual for me because I generally prefer to ‘live and let live’.  If someone makes a different choice to one I might make, or selects something I actively dislike, I question them to understand what is driving their choice - criticising it says more about me than them.

Opinion 1: Select colours for a garment or outfit from ONE colour season to get the best benefit.



When it comes to choosing clothing with patterned fabrics I frequently despair.  I somehow missed learning about the colour wheel in school and so, it appears, have many fabric/pattern/designers.  Many beautifully styled garments appear ruined by the uneasy combination of colours the designers have selected.

  

These examples reinforce my belief that any discipline requiring participants to combine colours needs first to understand the colour wheel.  Further, when these colour combinations are to be worn by people, an understanding of how these colour families (we call them seasons) relate to the myriad of skin tones so that a range can be designed as close to the mid-point to suit as many as possible or, as Kettlewell intend, to cover all seasonal options so there is something for everyone.

‘Designed by textile artist Jilli Blackwood, the uniform includes turquoise, fuchsia and navy tartan’

This all sounds fine, until you discover the background is caramel (see below).  Navy and turquoise can bridge the gap between cool and warm tones but fuchsia is firmly rooted in the cool spectrum as much as caramel is in the warm.  To all you foodies out there, that’s like putting ketchup on your apple crumble or sugar on your bacon!

Opinion 2: Don’t mix patterns

At the age of 5, my friend’s daughter showed up wearing all her favourite clothes!  On a 5 year old it was cute and funny to be so ‘busy’, not classy, sophisticated or elegant though.  Patterns are fabulous but please show them in their best light by complementing them with a supporting plain and probably in a neutral colour.  If you MUST mix patterns, then learn how to recognise those that match in scale or at least genealogy. I believe we respond positively to balance and harmony and this is a wonderful example of inharmonious scale, colour and style all pulling in different directions – a tug of war with more than 2 ends!

The dresses are a nice touch, but at what point did Jilli think a ripple pattern would support and complement a tartan?  Looking at her appearance the answer is clearer, but therein lies the difference between creating an outfit which makes a statement reflecting your unique personality and designing uniforms and dressing for the masses.

One response tweeted ‘It’s refreshing and a definite surprise’ !

My fervent prayer is that fabric and pattern designers learn how to harmonise and complement – leaving competition to the athletes! 

Death and Public Speaking

 

 

It is often acknowledged that the two things people are most afraid of are death and public speaking. 

Most people can acknowledge that these are variations on Fear – of the unknown and being vulnerable.  Preston Ni has an interesting perspective, suggesting that these two fears are related by the fact that the fear of public speaking is the fear of emotional death!

 

 

Although it might not be so extreme, at House of Colour we’ve experienced people feeling intimidated by the thought of meeting an Image Consultant; they suddenly become self-conscious about their appearance, invest additional energy (compared to their normal levels) in thinking about what they’re wearing and apologise for various elements of their attire which they don’t have complete confidence in.  Otherwise confident people are reduced to varying degrees of nervousness. 

At the very least, this is something that needs to be acknowledged at the meeting introductions, and then put to one side, so that we can get on with the business of the meeting.  But what would it be like if you could remove most of the fear, releasing the energy for more productive use?

At our annual conference last year, we heard Mo Harford speaking about how our brains and thinking get in the way of our performance and producing great results.  In effect it is often only our beliefs which support (positive) or hinder (negative) us in our performance.

 

 

By focusing on getting your look ‘right’, i.e. one that you are comfortable in, comfortable with and that makes you look your best, you’re able to confidently step out and take care of the primary business at hand.  In the case of a ‘business’ person, this is getting on with their ‘business’!  

 

Special events can typically take a lot of our energy and attention when looking for the right outfit - often costing a lot of money - but it doesn’t have to.  For women, the problem often stems from a lack of confidence in coordinating items, so the safe option is to invest in a complete outfit which is clearly designed to coordinate and look good.  The problem with this approach is that you may have invested over £500 (clothing, accessories, shoes and in some cases underwear) and ended up with 1 outfit, rather than spending £500 on several items that can be used and adapted to create many more outfits in combination with clothing in your existing wardrobe.   Return on investment is about your cost-per-wear, shifting the focus to cost-per-outfit, an item of clothing or an accessory reveals itself as a good investment or not.

We need to know we look right, we have phrases such as ‘I need to put my face on’, ‘I’m having a bad hair day’, ‘I can’t go out without my lipstick/perfume/necklace (delete as appropriate)’.  All these statements point towards our need to ensure we ‘look the part’.  I particularly enjoyed reading this article on clothing related expressions!

 

Why are they fears? Because we all have a fundamental concern about what people think of us. This blog by Michael Hyatt gets succinctly to the point – take the focus off yourself!  Ironically, by focusing on yourself and your image, this is exactly what we are aiming for - get your physical presentation to such a level that you are able to take the attention off yourself and focus on the job in hand.

Maybe a business friend of mine who is considering a career transition from Business Consultant and Professional Speaker to Undertaker has the ideal solution to help you through your fears!

Defusing the Dress Code

Following on from last week’s blog ‘The Dress Code Minefield’, Kate Russell, BA Barrister, MA, Managing Director of Russell HR Consulting provides a legal perspective on this workplace dilemma.  Also known as the ‘HR Headmistress’ she has written numerous articles, published six books and e-books and has been widely quoted in the press including the Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, Huffington Post and Metro. 

Direct discrimination occurs when a person is treated less favourably on the grounds of his or her protected characteristic than a person who does not have that protected characteristic either has been or would have been treated. As a result of that less favourable treatment the person has suffered some form of detriment.

Indirect discrimination occurs where an employer applies a provision, criterion or practice which puts people of a particular gender at a disadvantage, unless that practice or policy can be objectively justified. A good example is the Azmi case which concerned religious beliefs.

Aishah Azmi, a devout Muslim, was employed as a bi-lingual support worker at a school. Although she did not raise it at the interview, she later said she had to wear a full face veil in accordance with her religious beliefs. The school investigated to see if it could accommodate her request but found that the children learned better when they could see her whole face. She was instructed to remove the veil when working with children, though she could wear it at all other times. Mrs Azmi refused and was suspended. She complained of discrimination on the grounds of her religion.

On the indirect discrimination point, the Court accepted that the school had applied a practice that put people of Mrs Azmi's religion at a disadvantage. However, the practice was justified as there was objective evidence that when she was wearing the veil children did not engage with her as well as when she was unveiled. The requirement was no more than was proportionate, as the school allowed her to be veiled when not teaching. 

More recently Nadia Eweida took her employer, British Airways, to the European Court of Human Rights after she was required to stop wearing her cross visibly. The court said BA had not struck a fair balance between Ms Eweida's religious beliefs and the company's wish to project its corporate image. Ms Eweida's rights had been violated under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Although Ms Eweida's claim was successful, the Court's decision was based on special circumstances, including the fact that a discreet cross would not have adversely affected British Airways' public image. Interestingly, a case brought at the same time by nurse, Shirley Chaplin, was unsuccessful. The reason for the ban on her wearing a cross was for safety reasons and this was acceptable to the Court.

Key points

• Base your dress code on business reasons and explain your reasoning.  Common business-related reasons include maintaining a public image, promoting a productive work environment, or complying with health and safety standards.
• Make sure the principles of your code genuinely reflect your business need and are neither discriminatory nor arbitrary.
• If a part of the policy could be discriminatory, consider whether it can be objectively justified. Conducting a workplace assessment will help establish any justification.
• Ensure that prospective employees are made aware of the policy before they join.
• If there are concerns, explore them using your grievance procedure and make adjustments where appropriate. 
• Give examples of what is suitable and unsuitable dress. For example, sandals which enclose the foot are acceptable; flip flops and trainers are not.
•  Identify any special requirements for employees who deal with the public.
• Communicate the policy and explain what the penalties will be for breach.
• Apply the dress code policy consistently, but make reasonable accommodation when the situation requires an exception.

 

The Dress Code Minefield

Everyone now and then there’s a serious side to everything – from a work perspective dress code can be a minefield.

My young son is currently fascinated by the World Wars, so when he wanted to bring home D-Day, My Story, which his teachers felt a little advanced for him, we agreed that we would discuss anything that is new or unclear to him - finishing the book might take a while but we’ve had some amazing conversations. 

One such conversation explored what a minefield is.  Working through this, the 7 year old explanation is relatively simple – an explosive that is generally unseen and triggered by ‘you’ in some way, unintentionally and often with no warning, causing significant damage beyond your control.

Mapping this onto your work wear, the term ‘minefield’ is an interesting metaphor.  The point being that while we are all free to choose what to wear, there are sometimes dress codes or expectations of what is acceptable and appropriate which, if we get it wrong, could at best hinder progress or at worst damage your reputation, unknowingly and almost certainly unintentionally, without warning and seemingly beyond your control.

I’ve met many clients who enjoy the act of rebellion and breaking the rules.   To really enjoy this, you need to break the rules ‘knowingly’, which requires an understanding of what the rules are, why they exist and what they are intended to provide.   In other words, to elicit a desired response from your audience, consciously making a choice about your clothing would be the smart choice! 





Understanding what works for you, (your colouring, shape, budget and lifestyle), dovetailing this with a knowledge of the language of clothes and identifying ways to add or remove authority in your outfit to bring clarity is all provided in your Personal Style Class – it’s a way of ‘minesweeping’ your appearance and personal brand to clear a path for safe progress.

A business relies on its personnel to deliver the ‘brand’; its people need to accurately reflect the product, service, company and market while showing themselves to be individuals.   In a less formal, multi-cultural society, where you’re aiming for freedom of expression whilst reinforcing your brand, it is critical to achieve a dress code that works for everyone, which can be a legal minefield.  With people exercising their right to express themselves more freely at all times, how do employers define clearly what is fair, reasonable and acceptable?  Employers have considerable latitude on what is acceptable but they must ensure that they don’t fall foul of anti-discrimination legislation.

 Next week, we have a guest blog from Kate Russell, (BA Barrister, MA) of Russell HR Consulting, who provides some clear guidance on what to consider in the workplace.